2006: An Old Year in Retrospect and A New Year’s Goals

This is my 2006 review and 2007 goals. 2007 review and 2008 goals to come.

I learned a lot this year. I also achieved a lot. I am very happy and proud of how the year went. The biggest improvement in my game started early this year when I began read poker books and articles and discussing poker with other players at poker forums. I soon learned some new tricks with the guidance from these sources. I have made a lot of changes to my game last year and hopeful make a lot more.

I now buyin for the max at the table to give me the optimum opportunity to earn the maximum from my opponents’ mistakes. I started the year playing super-tight push-monkey poker while buying in for the minimum. Don’t get me wrong here, you can make money this way as I learned early on, but you are not growing as a player; you’re not gain levels in your poker knowledge. I wasn’t really using my head; I was just waiting for a great starting hand and then pushing with it. I was making money slowly, but I wasn’t gaining any new skills. One positive was that I was getting lots of hands in, gradually letting me see how others were playing hands and gaining experience that only comes from sitting at the table.

I truly learned the value of aggression. This one advancement in my poker arsenal has added expected value to every session. I started the year weak and envisioning monsters under every bed, often folding strong holdings to others’ aggression. I hated to put money in the middle without an almost certain guaranty of returned compensation. I realize now through much trial and error and castigation from peers, that in certain situations it is lucrative in the long-term to bet even with marginal holdings. Continuation bets are a must. It took a lot for my conservative psyche to turn these tricks. I still have a long way to go, yet I am on the path.

I also have learned a bit about position over the year. I started out only playing certain hands and betting those hands the same at a full ring game no matter where I was in the hand. I have begun to be more aggressive with lesser holdings the better my position. It has increased my profits and also wins a lot of hands that I wouldn’t stand a chance with at showdown. The fewer people in the hand the less likely someone hit their hand and when they do how hard they hit. Another bet from position on a later street is quite likely to make them drop their holdings. I still have a long way to go here with my overall game.

I have begun to not only play with the hand I’m holding but also think about my opponents’ holdings and play accordingly. I’m starting to get an elementary grasp of possible holdings due to the way they play the hand. What are their betting patterns showing or portraying about their holdings? At the beginning of this year this was basically a nonexistent skill for me. But if you would have asked me if I thought about what they were holding, I would have ignorantly said of course I do. Yea, I half-ass guessed what they had, but without the depth of thinking currently involved. Once again I have plenty to learn here.

I have lowered my starting hand requirements. I started the year playing hyper-tight poker. I was playing top 15-25 hands solely. As aforementioned, I usually pushed my purposely-intentioned short-stack when I found those hands. It took a while for my mind to comprehend that loosening up didn’t mean going all willy-nilly and just throwing your money in with anything for any reason. I now play lots of combinations of starting hands in an array of situations and positions lucratively, by knowing exactly what and how I expect to hit those hands before investing anymore time or money into the hand. This is an ongoing and I’m guessing ever-changing part of my future game.

I have stopped adhering to my-believed finite rules of play. I have begun to play the player and/or situation. I don’t robotically make the moves that so easily defined what I held. I have begun to portray what I want them to think I hold or don’t hold. I exploit others mistakes with move and counter-move. I have begun to use pinpoint bluffing. It’s not hard to push in your chips and hope for the best. What’s hard is to know or make an educated guess as to when they will fold. I have begun to raise early in the hand for no other reason than to gain information as to their holds and how strong they are. I truly have lots to learn here and would fair to guess always will continue to always learn more and refine.

All of the aforementioned aspects and areas of my game that I have grown and embellished upon this past year, I hope and expect to continue educating myself further this next year. I look forward to it actually. I will keep an open-mind to new concepts and strategies, even if they seem far-fetched at first. I will continue to listen, discuss, and analyze every aspect that I can. Just like the psychology I am studying with fervor and I feel, an inherent love, I also feel for poker. There is nothing that makes a person thrive at something more than a love for it. Numerically I hope to double my earnings from last year. It is obtainable. Am I up to the task? Who knows, but you can bet your ass I will try. Onward I will grow and hopefully hit that unlikely plateau that, we all that love poker surreptitiously hope for, breaking the confines of the harnessed and controlled yoke of corporate society, to become a thriving Pro that lives doing what he loves.